When it comes to the USA's chances of advancing in the World Cup, the scenario's start off as pretty simple:

If the US wins vs. Germany: They advance

If the US ties Germany: They advance

That part's simple enough. With Portugal and Ghana only able to tie the USA's four points on Wednesday, any additional points in Group G get the United States to the Round of 16. The problem is that the American squad is facing a very motivated (and very talented) Germany squad that, too, needs a point to advance. They will be heavily favored heading into the game.

With that in mind, here's a look at the third, more complicated scenario:

If the US loses to Germany: They might advance

How's it breakdown? Here's a quick visual graphic:

This is where we’re at. Green advances us, Red doesn’t. Obvi. Goals for tiebreaker comes into play in a few cells pic.twitter.com/ywciqRQNpN

As the graphic shows, the US losing puts them in a potential tiebreaker situation with the winner of the Ghana-Portugal game (although, if that game ends in a tie, the United States advances). If either of those teams tie Team USA with four points in Group G, goal differential comes into play as the tie breaker. Here's how the Group G standings look for Thursday:

Group G

Country

Games

Wins

Losses

Ties

Goals for

Goals against

Goal Differential

Points

Germany

2

1

0

1

6

2

+4

4

USA

2

1

0

1

4

3

+1

4

Ghana

2

0

1

1

3

4

-1

1

Portigal

2

0

1

1

2

6

-4

1

While the graphic answers most of the questions, here are some quick things to know about Thursday's games and what to expect:

Root for Portugal - Thanks to Germany clobbering Portugal 4-0 in their opener, the US has a huge goal differential cushion in should Portugal win. Even if Team USA loses by two goals, Portugal would have to win by four goals.

The US has the goals for tiebreaker, for now - After the goal differential tiebreaker is the goals for tiebreaker, which goes in the US' favor since they've score four over their first two games compared to three for Ghana and two for Portugal.

If they US loses by one, they'd best be served not to do it via a 1-0 shutout. In that scenario, Ghana could jump them if they have a big scoring burst vs. Ghana. However, if the US loses 1-0, and Ghana wins 1-0 (tying the two teams in goal differential and goals for), the US advances on their head-to-head victory.